On secondary and tertiary degenerations in the spinal cord of the dog : a preliminary communication / by Charles S. Sherrington.

  • Charles Scott Sherrington
Date:
[1885]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On secondary and tertiary degenerations in the spinal cord of the dog : a preliminary communication / by Charles S. Sherrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    3/20 page 179
    throughout the whole length of the pyramidal tract, from the cortical lesion to the upper lumbar region—and appears as advanced at the level of the 2nd lumbar nerve as at that of the 2nd cervical. 2. IntheSrdweek the change appears much the same as on the 9th day, but altered nerve-fibres are more numerous, and cells lying in the neurooflia are more numerous. Moreover there seems in the connective- tissue framework wherein the nerve-fibres are set, a disarrangement of the orderliness of the network as compared with the healthy side; the disposition of the meshes is less regular. To the unaided eye the degeneration has become more evident; but the area it occupies in cross- section seems no larger than before. In the fresh unhardened tissue the naked eye detects nothing at this period, nor can it on the ninth day. 8. In cross-sections of the cord, where the degeneration has been allowed to run nearly two months, the disarrangement of the connective tissue network is very apparent, and the main radiate trabeculae are thickened and have numerous thickish side-branches. Some nerve-fibres seem to have disappeared; others still bear the granular, badly-coloured, slightly enlarged, aspect seen in the second week; cells in the neuroglia are very numerous. To the naked eye the degenerated tract is still paler than before. In cross-section it offers an area not quite so large as at first; at the margin the passage from obviously degenerated to healthy tissue has become less gradual; the shape of the area is not altered. By this date, and even so early as the fifth week, the naked eye can find the degeneration in the fresh unhardened cord, as a milky rounded spot, in section, not quite so large relatively to the whole area of the lateral column as the degeneration visible in a hardened specimen. At the base of the brain there is no evident difference in size^ between the pyramid on the degenerated and that on the undegenerated side; and the cross-sections of the pyramids show no difference in size although, after bichromate preparation, the degenerated may appear almost pure white beside the healthy. ■ At this time too—the latter part of the second month after operation —a degeneration is found in the lateral column of the cord on the same side as the cerebral lesion—i.e. in the left lateral column if the cerebral lesion be of the left hemisphere. This degeneration is situate in the same dorsal part of the lateral column in vv^hich lies the crossed pyramidal tract. The appearance thus given, e.g. in the cervical cord, is as though ^ This holds only for adult dogs. In young puppies a difference in size between the pyraniids is observable a month after the cortical destruction. 14—2
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3